The Committee of Experts on Constitution Review has expressed confidence it can deliver a new constitution if vested political interests do not bog down the process. The committee says it will focus on contentious issues to build consensus before the document is presented at a referendum. The aim is to avoid delaying the new constitution. It hinted that if they agreed and Parliament cooperated, Kenya would have a new constitution “sooner than expected’. Chairman Nzamha Kitonga expressed fears that political squabbles in Parliament whenever crucial Bills are debated, may delay the process. We are out to come up with anew document sooner than expected, since we will be focusing mainly on contentious issues. They are less than 20 per cent of the constitution draft that Kenyans rejected In the 2005 referendum,’ Mr Kitanga said. ‘Our fears lie with Parliament, but if the MPs cooperate in the interest of the electorate, we will have a new Constitution in less than nine months,” he said.
Kitonga told MPs not to publicize the process and instead let the committee carry out its mandate without undue interference: He asked Kenyans to exert pressure on their MP’s to support the initiative ‘to complete the process this year “Kenyans should not relent on asking MPs for a new constitution They must tell MPs they have waited for too long and they too Must show willingness in the writing of a new constitution by putting aside sectarian interests,” said Kitonga. The Secretary for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Gichira Kibara says the Committee would resolve the contentious issues and would not conduct new surveys or hearings from Kenyans. We want to achieve the best constitution in our circumstances where majority of Kenyans agree and are at a broad national consensus.’ Mr Kathara said. We will focus on national interests as opposed to regional and ethnic ones. We want to strengthen the present institutions to reflect those of a modern nation,” he said. The experts said they would devote their time to scrutinize issues Kenyans failed to agree on in the 2005 referendum before subjecting the agreed draft to a referendum, The experts have appealed for the amendment of sonic sections of the Constitution of Kenya Review (amendment) Act 2008, to enable them deter-mine the interest groups they will consult and also rectify their period in office. While the Act omitted names of the interest groups to-be consulted at some point, It was contradictory about their commencement dates and period of mandate.
The Act says the committee’s mandate was to start front the dare of gazzetment, but still another section says our work commences from the date we were sworn in,” Kitonga said.
The committee was sworn in on March 1, three months after the Act was gazetted. Among questions Parliament will be called upon to handle, according to the CoE, include deciding between a parliamentary system of Government, a presidential system with reduced powers through the reconfiguration of the system of checks and balances or a hybrid of both. Kitonga said the hybrid system decision will he informed by studying the current situation where we have both a president and a prime minister.
